What's It Gonna Be
by PrincessTadashi
Summary: (Based heavily off of Shura's music video "What's It Gonna Be") Fred and Gogo befriend each other's crushes to try to help each other's love lives out. But when it turns out Tadashi is only into boys and Honey Lemon's only into girls, the best friends both give up on their original crushes, only to find they might start to be falling for each other's crush. (Honeygogo/Fredashi)
1. Chapter 1

GoGo pulls herself into one last curl up before the alarm telling her it was time to get ready for school starts going off. She grabs her towel and starts wiping away the sweat as she goes to take her shower. Most people thought she was crazy for getting up so early to work out, but if she wanted to make it onto the varsity track team and prove herself to be the best, then she had to do it. Being the fastest mattered more to her than anything else. Well… Maybe there was something (or someone) slightly more important, but she wasn't about to let that distract her from her goal-or at least that's what she told herself. Forcing images of soft brown eyes and a strong, broad shoulders out of her mind, she focuses on showering down so she can get to school.

Across town, Fred was reading comics as he waited for his family's butler and driver, Heathcliff, to pull the limo around front (God he hated the fact that his parents made him ride in something so ostentatious to school when the last thing he needed was to stick out like a sore thumb more than he already did, but there wasn't much he could do about it.) As it was, he was trying his best to get lost in his world of superheroes before having to face the reality of school that day. The series he was currently reading wasn't something he'd normally have checked out, but when he'd seen the heroine on the cover he'd had to get it because she totally reminded him of his crush, Honey Lemon. Just like the princess in the story, she was totally out of his league-he was a lowly nerd who played D&D on the weekends while she was the girl campaigning for and favored to win homecoming queen. Still, that didn't keep him from dreaming, and he could only hope that someday, somehow, he might just get the courage up to talk to her, or maybe even ask her out. It was probably just a fantasy, but that had never stopped Fred from chasing his dreams, no matter how impossible.

GoGo grunts as she shoves a heavy circular saw across the floor of the school's workshop to it's new spot along the back wall. Yes, it was probably something she shouldn't be trying to do on her own, but she was too stubborn to ask for help. And she wasn't about to complain about all the manual labor she was assigned whenever she came here to help the shop teacher-not only did being a teacher's aide make for good extra credit, lifting and moving heavy supplies and materials did make for an awesome workout. And, beyond all of that, there was also the benefit that the school robotics team came in here during this period to practice, and GoGo wasn't about to complain about getting to watch Tadashi Hamada, the team captain, working on the team's robot, often stripped down to just worn blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt that would showed off his lightly sculpted abs, his usually flawless skin streaked with motor oil and grease. Oh yeah-all the hard work she did was definitely worth it if it meant getting to watch that every day.

Unfortunately, some days, she got a little _too_ distracted and didn't pay enough attention to what she was doing, and today was one of those days. Before she even knew what was happening, she went from standing upright to finding herself sprawled across the floor like a rag doll. She quietly curses as she spots the screwdriver someone had carelessly left on the floor-she was lucky that she hadn't broken an ankle thanks to that dumb thing! Wincing in pain, she picks herself up off the floor. As ashamed as she was to admit it, a small part of her had been hoping that Tadashi had seen her fall and would come over to help her-anything that would give her an excuse to talk to him while being able to convince her brain that she wasn't going soft by seeking out a guy. But he didn't-he was too wrapped up in his own little world of inventing to be able to notice anything at the moment. He probably wouldn't have even noticed if tornado sirens had started going off he was that engrossed in his work. Groaning quietly and limping a bit on her injured leg, GoGo gets back to work, doing her best to act like she wasn't still watching Tadashi when she knew how stupid she was being, thinking she even had a chance with a guy like that.

Fred was on his way to his last period, hurrying up the stairs, only to come to a standstill when he spots Honey Lemon just above him on the stairwell, hanging campaign posters. As usual, she was surrounded by a group of friends and admirers, although it was clear from her sweet, sunny smile and the way she was making sure to include everyone in the conversation that the attention wasn't going to her head. That's one of the many things Fred found so amazing about her: even though she was so popular, she still remained such a pure-hearted soul. And it was one of the many reasons he wished that he was at the very least friends of her, even though to date he'd been too shy to do much more than wave and squeak out a "Hi" whenever she passed. It wasn't like she ignored him purposefully-he was pretty sure that it was just that, with so many people and important things occupying her thoughts at all times, he wasn't even on her radar. Why should he be? It's not like they even ran in the same social circles or had any classes together. He only ever saw her from a distance in the hallway.

Still, as Honey Lemon passes him on her way down the stairs, suddenly she looks over at him and for a moment he has a heart attack thinking that she's going to bust him for staring at her. But instead, she offers him a brilliantly sunny smile and chirps, "Oh, hey Fred!" before continuing on down the stairs. The poor fanboy was pretty sure his heart was about to beat out of his chest as she continues on her way. She knew his name! She actually knew his name! (Wow, that sounded kind of pathetic even in his own head, but hey, it was a start!) He was so excited over this positive turn events that he felt like he was floating on Cloud 9 as he starts back on his way up the stairs-only to promptly trip over a backpack that someone had dropped and faceplant right onto the linoleum.

"Hey!" GoGo looks up to see Fred heading towards her, grinning and waving, and with a wry smile she waves back. Most people didn't understand how they were best friends-they were total opposites, both in looks and personality. But ever since GoGo had saved Fred from the bullies at daycare when they'd been only four, the two had stuck together like glue, and no one and nothing could tear them apart, not even growing up and going in slightly different directions.

"Hey yourself," GoGo answers as she unlocks her bike. "How was your day?"

"Ugh-killer," Fred groans. "I totally faceplanted right after Honey Lemon actually said 'Hi' to me! Can you believe it? I must have looked like such a dork..."

"At least she said 'Hi' to you," GoGo quietly grumbles. "I tripped over a screwdriver and almost sprained my ankle while Tadashi was, like, five feet away, and he didn't even _notice_!" The fanboy was pretty much the only person she was honest to about her feelings, and it was nice to have someone to talk to about it who actually understood her situation.

"Aw man-that royally sucks," Fred tells her, sympathetically shaking his head. "We both had really rough days, huh?"

"Definitely," GoGo agrees, finally getting her bike free from the bike rack.

"Want to head to Toybox Comics to drown our sorrows in sugar and superhero stories?" Fred offers, naming their favorite hangout.

"Sounds perfect," GoGo answers with a grin. "Wanna ride with me?"

"Yes please!" Fred replies, climbing onto the back of her bike-they'd been doing this for years, and even if both their parents worried about how safe it was, GoGo had yet to have a wreck and the fanboy felt perfectly safe riding with her.

Half an hour later they pull up outside the local comic book shop and, after locking up GoGo's bike, they go inside and head directly to the gaming room-a sort of hang out area filled with tables and comfy chairs so that people could play tabletop games, read, or work on their favorite hobbies. It was a little patch of nerd heaven, and the best friends had spent more hours here than they could care to count ever since they'd been old enough to start coming here by themselves. As usual, Fred heads over to check the bulletin board on the wall where people posted notices for special services or events-one never knew when the next Marvel movie night or cosplay contest might be! But the fanboy lets out a quiet groan when he spots a familiar face on a poster right smack-dab in the middle.

"She has posters up here too?" he sighs-was there no escape from the reminders of the person he wanted to date but probably would never be able to actually so much as have a full conversation with?

"She's not the only one," GoGo answers, pointing to another poster trying to recruit new members for the robotics team.

"Seriously-why are we both stuck crushing on people we can't even so much as get a word out to?" Fred complains, sinking into a nearby beanbag chair.

"It's so stupid!" GoGo agrees, plopping down next to him. "I mean, they're just people-why can't we have a normal conversation with them?"

"I mean, it would be so much easier if we had it reversed-I would have no problem talking to Tadashi, and I'll bet you and Honey Lemon would get along great since you both love science so much!" Fred huffs.

"You have a very good point there," GoGo agrees, raising an imaginary glass in a toast to their mutual frustration.

They sit there in silence for a full minute, and then suddenly Fred almost leaps out of his chair.

"What is it? Did you get bit or something?" GoGo asks, suddenly nervous that the admittedly old beanbags might have an infestation.

"No, it's not that!" Fred quickly reassures her. "But I think I might have a solution to our problem!"

"You do?" GoGo asks incredulously. "What is it?" As much as she loved her best friend, he was known for his harebrained schemes and she wasn't really in the mood to be sucked into one of those right now.

"What you said-we can swap!" Fred declares with a proud grin.

"Uh, Fred? I hate to break it to you but I don't think me hitting on Honey Lemon is going to be happening any time soon, and I don't see how that would even help either of us…" GoGo answers, raising an eyebrow.

"No, not like that!" Fred answers, waving aside her concerns. "I meant what if we became friends with each other's crushes so we can talk each other up to them? We be the ultimate wingmen! Wait, no, you're a girl, so wingwomen? No, that's not right either! Wingpersons? Or maybe-"

"It's okay, I get what you're saying," GoGo tells him, trying to forestall any more rambling, before chewing thoughtfully on her lower lip. "All right, I'll be honest, your plan sounds a bit crazy. But… It might just be crazy enough to work."

"Really?" Fred brightens at that, pleased that she was taking his idea seriously.

"Yeah," GoGo agrees, the start of a smile forming on her face. "Let's do it. It's not like we have anything else to lose, right?"

"Right!" Fred answers before putting out his palm and spitting into it. "Spit swear?"

As childish as it might seem to anyone else, a spit swear meant more to those two than to any other promise in the world, and so GoGo does the same before shaking his hand. "We're in this 'til the end," she states firmly.

"To the end!" Fred agrees with a grin.

The next day, their plan goes into action. First things first-GoGo went to the front office as soon as the school doors opened the morning to get herself switched from third period AP chemistry to eighth period-the same class Honey Lemon took. With as busy as Honey Lemon was (she seemed to be on the chair for every possible committee in the school on top of running her own campaign for homecoming queen), the two friends had determined that the best time for GoGo to try to get to talk to her would be during a class-and not just any class, but her favorite class, meaning that she would hopefully be in a really good mood during it, making it the optimal time for speaking to her. Their plan in place, GoGo enters the door to the classroom at 2:30 p.m. and scouts around for the girl she was supposed to be befriending. As it so happened, it wasn't hard to find her-not only was Honey easily the tallest girl in their class, even without the platform heels that she always wore, but she always dressed in bright colors, making her stand out like a daisy on a cloudy day. Her work station was, of course, right at the front of the room so she wouldn't miss out on a single moment of class, and while GoGo usually preferred to sit in the back, away from the hawk-like gaze of most of her teachers, she decides to just suck it up-Fred was going to be going out of his comfort zone for her too so she could do this for her best friend.

"Hey," she greets Honey Lemon when she reaches her station, gesturing to the empty seat next to her. "Anyone sitting here?"

"No, actually," Honey answers, giving her a friendly smile, her emerald green eyes sparkling, but seeming a bit hesitant. "I don't exactly have a lab partner at the moment. My last one-well, they sort of quit because they felt my chemistry was a bit too… 'extreme' was the word I think they used."

"Extreme?" GoGo repeats, raising an eyebrow.

"My side experiments that I work on when I'm done with the main assignment tend to get a bit… colorful," Honey Lemon answers with a sheepish grin.

"Ah." That's right-GoGo remembered hearing rumors of Honey Lemon's somewhat illicit experiments in the lab. Still, that wasn't about to scare her off, not when she was on a mission.

"Hey, I like to live a bit on the extreme side," she tells the other girl with a slight shrug.

"Well… All right then!" Honey Lemon beams at her. "In that case, you're more than welcome to be my lab partner!"

"Great!" GoGo grins at her and takes the empty seat.

"I don't think I've seen you in here before," Honey Lemon notes once she's given her a chance to get comfortable in her seat.

"I transferred in from an earlier time," GoGo answers carefully, not wanting to give away everything just yet-she had to play this off as casually as possible. "It just worked better with my schedule."

"That makes sense!" Honey Lemon agrees with a grin before adding, "It'll be nice having another girl in the class! It's really sad that there aren't many other girls in the advanced science classes here… But hey, at least I have you now, right?"

"Right…" GoGo replies before quickly adding, "Although I'm not exactly a girly-girl, so if talking about makeup and boys is your thing I'm not really into that…"

"Oh, don't worry!" Honey Lemon hurries to reassure her with a small giggle. "That's perfectly fine, makeup isn't everything-there are so many other fun things to talk about! And as for boys, trust me, you definitely won't catch me swooning over some guy!"

For a moment GoGo relaxed, glad that she'd found a somewhat kindred spirit, only to freeze when she realizes that part of what she'd just said was majorly counter-productive to what she was doing here.

"I-I mean not all boys are that bad!" she quickly says, trying to make up for her mistake. "Like my friend Fred-he's a really nice guy!"

"Oh, you mean Fred Lee?" Honey Lemon asks. "Yeah, he's definitely a sweetie! But not exactly my type…"

"What's wrong with him?" GoGo demands, feeling more than a little bit defensive. "Any girl would be lucky to date him!"

"They definitely would!" Honey Lemon hurries to reassure her. "I'm not saying they wouldn't be! But like I said, he's just… Not my type."

"Then what is 'your type'?" GoGo huffs. Any information she could get that would give Fred an advantage was crucial right now.

"I-I'm not sure exactly…" Honey Lemon starts to stammer out.

"Then how can you know that he's not it?" GoGo presses.

"Why this so important?"

"It just is!"

"That's not a good enough answer!"

"Neither is yours!"

"Just answer the question already!"

"Honestly?" Honey Lemon's tone changes for a moment, losing all of its friendly warmth-it almost sounded like she was snapping. "I'm just not in the position to be dating anyone right now, okay? Let's just leave it at that!" For a moment her cheerful smile slips away-just long enough for GoGo to recognize a look she'd seen on her own face in the mirror enough times to know what it meant: she was done talking about the subject and that pushing her any more might result in things taking a major turn for the south. So GoGo stops.

"Sorry," the girl mumbles, now feeling slightly bad for having gotten that aggressive about it. "I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine," Honey Lemon cuts her off with a tiny shrug, making it clear that she didn't want to say anything more about it.

"Oh. Okay then…" GoGo wasn't exactly sure what to say-she wasn't exactly good with the whole feelings thing, so she had no clue where to go from here. Of course she was worried about what Fred was going to feel when he found out that his crush wasn't interested in him back (it might help soften the blow that she wasn't interested in anyone, but it would still hurt.) Until she could talk to him, though, she had to figure out how to keep things from being super weird with her new lab partner for the rest of the class period.

Honey Lemon seems to notice her discomfort and, after taking a moment to compose herself, offers GoGo a friendly smile that seemed to say that all was forgiven. It was a bit disconcerting to see her mood change so suddenly, but before the other girl could think about it too much, Honey lowers her voice and asks in a conspiratorial whisper, "Wanna see something cool?"

"Um, sure, I guess?" GoGo answers, not sure where exactly this was going but deciding to just play along-anything was better than the awkward silence they were currently in.

"Great!" Honey Lemon beams at her before starting to pull several small bottles of brightly colored liquids and powders out of her purse.

"What are those?" GoGo asks, feeling equal parts concerned and oddly intrigued.

"You think I'd leave the house without my own personal chemistry kit?" Honey Lemon answers, a mischievous look in her eyes. Before the other girl can ask any more questions, she starts pouring different chemicals together in a beaker, the mixture starting to fizz in a slightly dangerous manner until-

"Whoa!" GoGo quickly scoots her chair back as the mixture overflows onto the desk, quickly hardening into solid pink foam.

"Oh, don't worry!" Honey Lemon tells her with a grin. "It's perfectly safe-you can even touch it if you want! Trust me, I wouldn't make anything that would harm another student! It just looks really awesome, doesn't it?"

"It's certainly… pink," GoGo answers, unable to keep from smiling slightly as she pokes the foam with her finger-it actually did feel kind of cool.

"See? Science can be fun!" Honey Lemon declares.

"True," GoGo chuckles, shaking her head in slight amazement-this was certainly a side of Honey Lemon that she hadn't known about before. Still, as she watches the other girl snapping selfies with her latest chemistry experiment, even pulling GoGo into a few and making the other girl roll her eyes at her silliness, she couldn't help but smile. As much as she hated having to be the bearer of bad news to her best friend, switching classes hadn't turned out to be a total loss. Honey Lemon actually seemed like a pretty good friend to have, and for once she felt like she actually had a reason to look forward to coming to class.

Fred, for his part, was trying his luck with Tadashi and the robotics club. He'd written down the room number for where the team met from the flyer in the comic book store, and directly after last period he set out to try to find it. As it turned out, the club room was down in the basement, and he feels just a bit nervous as he goes down the dark, rickety old stairs and knocks on the closed door of the classroom. Still, only moments after knocking the door opens, revealing a warmly lit room that looked like something of a nerd's paradise and any reservations he had were quickly swept away.

"Hello, can I help you?" the guy he knew from GoGo's descriptions and the few times he'd seen him in the hallway as Tadashi prompts when the fanboy, who was practically drooling over the vintage sci-fi posters, fails to say anything for a full minute.

"O-Oh, yeah, sorry!" Fred apologizes, flushing slightly in embarrassment, before answering, "I saw your flyer in the comic shop saying that the team was looking for new members and, well, here I am!"

"Really?" Tadashi's eyes light up when he hears that. "Awesome! Yeah, we're definitely looking for new members! Do you have any experience working with robots?"

"I- Not really, no," Fred admits before quickly adding, "But I'm a fast learner if you could use an extra pair of hands!"

"I like your attitude," Tadashi chuckles before looking him over and saying thoughtfully, "I feel like I've seen you somewhere before… Wait! Are you in Dr. Richardson's AP English class?"

"What? Oh, yeah!" Fred answers, feeling a bit caught off guard by the question but deciding to just see where the other guy was going with this.

"I thought so!" Tadashi grins at him. "I'm his student aide-I've seen you in the classroom talking to him a few times after class!"

"No way!" Fred gasps. How had he missed him?

"If it's okay for me to say this-your writing is really good," Tadashi tells him before adding earnestly, "I mean, like really, _really_ freaking good."

"T-Thanks!" Fred flushes at the praise-it was nice to have someone actually appreciate the fact that he was a good writer for once instead of just hating him for killing the curve.

"Y'know…" Tadashi says, looking at him with renewed interest, "With your writing skills, I actually just might have something I could really use your help with!"

"Name it!" Fred answers eagerly-this was awesome progress, it was just a short jump from helping Tadashi out with something to getting him to actually go out on a date with GoGo! (Alright, so maybe not an exactly _short_ jump, but it was a start in the right direction!)

"For our robotics competitions, we don't just have to turn in a robot," Tadashi tells him. "We have to write a paper and give a presentation on the the theme of the year's competition-you actually get points on how well you do with them that help your overall score. I usually have to do it all myself because the rest of the guys on the team aren't exactly writers-there's a reason we're all future engineers instead of future English teachers. I'm not a bad writer, but I'm not great at it either, so we don't usually get too many points from the presentation portion. If I had you helping me out, though-!"

"Say no more!" Fred answers, grinning eagerly. "I'm all over it!"

"Great!" Tadashi beams at him. "I have to help out with finishing off the robot and practicing driving it around our practice course up in the workshop, but since the others need to practice too I usually have some free time during our meetings and maybe we could work on it then?"

"Sounds perfect!" Fred agrees, beaming back.

"Perfect!" Tadashi repeats before asking, "Do you want to come in and meet the rest of the team? I mean, you are a member now and you'll probably be seeing these guys coming in and out of here a lot while we're working on the paper and presentation."

"Absolutely!" Fred tells him-hey, it wasn't like he had anything to stand to lose by meeting them, and the sooner he could get integrated into the group, the sooner he could start talking to Tadashi about GoGo, right?

"All right then!" Tadashi waves for him to follow him inside.

Fred does so, unable to believe that there was even _more_ nerd swag in here! But his attention was quickly claimed by the rather eclectic group of nerds who were actually occupying the room.

"Okay guys!" Tadashi says, calling the others to order and putting a hand on the fanboy's shoulder as he prepares to introduce him. "This is Fred-he's going to be helping me with writing the paper and making the presentation, so you slackers can stop trying to wimp out of doing it since I finally have some _actual_ help!"

There was a collective round of cheers, and the fanboy felt himself blushing slightly and also grinning-it was nice to have people cheering for him for once instead of booing him!

"Fred, this is the rest of the team," Tadashi tells him, continuing with the introductions, pointing to each member of the team as he says their name. "That's David, a.k.a. Wasabi-nicknamed because of an incident with sushi that is not to be spoken of. Over here we have Hunk and Pidge. This is Hiro, my little brother-and yes, he doesn't just look young, he really is twelve because he's a super genius who managed to pass all the tests to be in high school already!" He beams proudly at the boy before continuing, "That's Eza, Hiro's best friend, and Sabine, Ezra's older sister. And those two lovebirds over there are Keith and Lance!"

"We are not 'lovebirds'," the dark haired teen who was apparently named Keith groans, shaking his head.

"We kind of are, babe," the brown haired teen next to him, Lance, answers, playfully pecking him on the cheek and making him blush bright red.

Okay, this was a bit different than Fred had expected, but he could definitely roll with it-he had a lot of gay friends that he'd met online and at conventions, so he was totally chill with it! Actually, he thought it was pretty cool that they were so open with their relationship, and he asks curiously, "How long have you guys been together?"

"A year in January!" Lance states proudly.

"Nice! That's really awesome!"

"Thanks!" Lance grins back at him before adding playfully, "We're pretty much the only official couple in the group, but we've been _trying_ to get Tadashi here set up with a date. He's about to graduate, and he's never been on a date, can you believe it?"

Well, Fred hadn't expected this blatant of an opportunity, but he wasn't about to turn it down!

"Hey, it's cool if he hasn't," the fanboy says mildly before turning to Tadashi and adding, "but if you're looking for a date to the homecoming dance or something, I have a friend who I think would definitely be interested!"

"Oh, wow… Um, that's really nice of you," Tadashi mumbles, turning a bit red, "but I'd really rather get to know anyone I date before actually asking them out, y'know?"

"Fair enough," Fred agrees, hoping that he hadn't crossed any boundaries. "Just thought I'd let you know in case you ever want to talk to her!"

"Oh man, it's a 'her'?" Lance shakes his head slightly. "Nope, that's definitely not happening, then."

"Why not?" Fred asks, although he was beginning to get a sneaking suspicion.

"Dashi's gay as a rainbow flag, duh," the boy Tadashi had introduced Hiro answers with a wry smile. "I thought everyone knew that!"

"I… Honestly did not," Fred admits, thinking just how crushed GoGo was going to be when she found out. But then he realized that his reaction might leave Tadashi thinking that he wasn't okay with him being gay, which he totally was, and so he quickly tells him, "But hey, awesome! Some of my best friends are gay, and I say it shouldn't matter who you're attracted to as long as you're happy!"

"Wait, you're not gay?" Pidge asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh… I don't think so?" Fred answers, feeling completely thrown by the question. Where had that even come from?

"Huh… Interesting." For some reason Pidge didn't seem fully convinced, but before they can say anything else, Tadashi quickly steps in, "Well, I think that's enough with the introductions for one day! Fred, would you be okay with meeting me here tomorrow to start working on the paper?"

"S-Sure," Fred answers, still feeling a bit shaken by what had Pidge said (why was it bothering him when he knew that he wasn't interested in guys?) but deciding to just go with it-anything that would get him out of here for the moment. Honestly, he had bigger problems to deal with right now-like telling GoGo that the guy she was crushing on wasn't going to be able to reciprocate her feelings. That was enough of a mess without questioning his own sexuality.

"All right then." Seeming to sense his discomfort, Tadashi gently starts guiding him towards the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"R-Right," Fred agrees, flashing him a small smile and not completely sure that he'd actually be coming back but wanting to act friendly all the same. "See you then!"

And then, with one final awkward wave, he heads towards the stairs, missing Tadashi's rather lingering gaze on his retreating figure.


	2. Chapter 2

After leaving the robotics club room, Fred heads up to the bike rack where he'd planned to meet GoGo. It wasn't with the excited, victorious feeling he'd expected to feel when he'd went down to the club room earlier today, and part of him greatly dreaded what he had to do. Still, it was better to let her know the truth than to let her continue on crushing on Tadashi when her feelings would never be reciprocated.

"Hey!" the fanboy greets the girl when he spots her, waving a bit nervously. "How was your day?"

"It was… Y'know what, I'm not even going to answer that, I'm going to get right to the point," GoGo sighs. "Honey Lemon is apparently not looking for a relationship right now, and she let me know that in no uncertain terms."

"O-Oh…" Fred feels his heart sinking in his chest. "D-Did she say when she might be looking for a relationship?"

"No, she didn't, but I don't think it's going to be any time soon, and I don't think it's going to be with you even when she is," GoGo answers, trying to be as gently as possible. "She said you're not 'her type', whatever that is-she didn't seem to even know what her type was! I did everything I could, but she started shutting down when I tried to push her for more information. I-I'm sorry, Fred..."

The fanboy swallows hard-this definitely wasn't the outcome he'd been hoping for. Still, if Honey wasn't looking for a relationship, he couldn't try to force that onto her-he had to respect what she'd said, even if it hurt. Beyond that, this wasn't the time for self pity, at least not yet-he still had to break the news about the robotics team captain to GoGo.

"Tadashi's gay," Fred tells her, knowing from past experience that fast and blunt was the way she preferred to receiver her news.

"He's _what_?" GoGo stares up at him in disbelief.

"Yep," Fred sighs. "Apparently the entire robotics team has been trying to set him up on dates with guys, if that tells you anything."

"I… Wow." GoGo shakes her head. "I never would have thought… Then again, that might explain why he never showed any interest in me…"

"It probably does," Fred agrees, still trying to be careful not to hurt her feelings more than they already were. "I'm really sorry about this, GoGo…"

"Me too," the other teen answers with a quiet sigh before giving him the best smile she can manage at the moment. "Guess we're both having pretty crummy afternoons, huh?"

"Guess so," Fred answers, wryly smiling back. "So… Want to go drown our sorrows in unholy amounts of ice cream?"

"I'm all over that," GoGo agrees with a small grin.

They mount the bike in relative silence, both of them lost in their own thoughts for the moment as they ride off down the street. Still, after a couple of minutes, GoGo asks, "Hey, Fred?"

"Yeah?" the fanboy answers.

"Now that you know Tadashi's never going to be interested in me, are you planning to quit the robotics club?"

"I… I don't know. I mean, I know that I don't have to keep going, but Tadashi seems like he really needs my help with their paper and presentation for their competition, plus everyone on the team just seems really nice so I might stick around, see what happens, y'know?"

"That makes sense."

"Yeah… How about you? Are you planning to switch back to your old time for chemistry?"

"Nah. It would be a pain to switch it again, plus I don't know if they'd even let me do that. Besides, Honey Lemon's actually pretty cool, and it's sort of nice having a female friend for once, y'know? Not that you aren't great, you are! It's just that there are some things that I don't feel I can or should really talk to you about as a guy..."

"I completely understand!" Fred reassures her before adding, "Well, I guess the plan at least somewhat worked."

"How's that?" GoGo asks, looking back at him in confusion as she pulls to a stop at a red light.

"Even if we're not dating them, we did both make a new friend," Fred answers.

"That is true," GoGo agrees with a slight smile. "I guess you're right-this whole thing wasn't a total loss."

"Exactly!" Fred couldn't help but smile back-it was nice having some sort of redeeming factor out of this whole debacle. Still, out of all the craziness that had happened this afternoon, there was still one thing niggling at the edges of his consciousness and he finds him saying quietly, "GoGo?"

"Yeah?" GoGo answers, her eyes staying on the road as the light changes and she starts pedaling forward.

"Do you think there's any chance I could be…"

"Be what?"

Fred was about to ask the question on the tip of his tongue, but at the last second chickens out. "Y-Y'know what? Just forget it, it's not that important…"

"You sure?" GoGo asks, sounding a bit concerned.

"Positive."

"All right then. But if you need to talk about it-"

"Yeah, I know," Fred reassures her, smiling gratefully even though he knew that she couldn't see him. She was the best friend ever, and he couldn't be more grateful to her for always being there for him.

The next month sort of just flies by. Nothing particularly special happened after that fateful day-both Fred and GoGo managed to reconcile themselves to the fact that their crushes were unrequited and been able to move on with their lives. Having made their new friends actually helped a bit with the healing process-GoGo was actually rather enjoying chemistry now that she had a new lab partner who really knew how to have fun in the class, and Fred was somewhat surprised to find that he was having a great time researching the planet Mars with Tadashi for their presentation. Having someplace to invest their time, energy, and emotions, was definitely a great help. But becoming so emotionally involved so soon after a heartbreak ended up having unintended effects that neither of them could have planned for.

"Hey GoGo!" Honey Lemon chirps, sunny smile as present as ever, as the shorter girl slides into the seat next to her.

"Hey yourself," GoGo answers with a slight smile. "You glad that it's Friday?"

"Definitely!" Honey Lemon giggles before her eyes suddenly go wide and she says eagerly, "Oh! I was wondering-would you like to come over for a sleepover tonight?"

"A sleepover?" GoGo repeats, a bit surprised but not displeased by the request. She was hardly ever invited to go anywhere except by Fred, and the idea of getting to spend the night with a friend sounded like a lot of fun. Still, she couldn't help but think of the roadblocks in the way of her doing that. "I'd love to, but I'd have to check with my parents-they can be pretty strict about letting me go over to friend's houses if they don't know them. Plus I don't exactly have my stuff for sleeping over…"

"Well, maybe you can call your parents after class is over?" Honey Lemon suggests. "And we can totally swing by your house to pick up anything you need if they say 'yes'!"

"That could work," GoGo agrees with a slight smile. "Okay, sure, let's do it!"

"Awesome!" Honey Lemon beams at her. "Oh my gosh, this is going to be so much fun!"

"Yeah," GoGo agrees, her heart beating just a little bit faster in her chest and trying not to overthink how much she loved to see Honey smile. "It should be…"

"Hey Fred!"

"Oh, hey Dashi!" Fred grins as he looks away from his locker to see the robotics team president standing there. "What's up?"

"Well, I know we have our regular club meeting tonight," Tadashi answers. "But I was wondering if maybe you could help me out by staying after?"

"Sure!" Fred agrees, always glad to assist a friend. "What do you need?"

"Well, Hiro has a dentist appointment and pretty much everyone else has plans tonight," Tadashi explains, "but I want to do some modifications on the robot tonight that should help give us a competitive edge. I need someone else to drive it so that I can follow along with it to see if they're working properly or if I need to tweak something. Think you could do that for me?"

"I-well, I can do my best," Fred answers tentatively. "I mean, I've never actually driven the robot before…"

"You'll be fine," Tadashi reassures him. "And besides, I can teach you how to do it!"

"You can?" Fred asks, feeling a mixture of nervousness and excitement.

"Definitely!" Tadashi tells him with a grin. "You're a member of the team, after all-it's about time that you got a chance to actually work with the robot, right?"

"Yeah, that makes sense!" Fred agrees, a smile making his way onto his face. "Okay, yeah, let's do this!"

"Awesome!" Tadashi beams back at him before waving for him to follow him. "Now c'mon, let's head down to the meeting before the others bust us for being late, huh?"

"Sounds good!" Fred chuckles, happily trailing after him. And if he blushed just a tiny bit when his hand accidentally brushes against Tadashi's in the stairwell? Well, no one else needed to know about that but him.

"I'm so glad that your parents said you could come!"

Honey Lemon and GoGo were hanging out in Honey's room, and so far the evening had been even more fun than GoGo had imagined it would be. Admittedly the shorter girl had been skeptical when Honey had started chattering away about what sounded like very stereotypical sleepover activities, but the tall blonde had found ways to make them actually fun. Like baking cookies, for example-Honey didn't just stick to the recipe, she insisted on experimenting with different amounts of ingredients to make several smaller batches to see which one would make cookies with the best consistency. GoGo couldn't help but appreciate the science behind the activity and, beyond that, it was fun to taste test all the different types of cookies. Another activity that Honey Lemon had dragged her into that had turned out surprisingly fun was makeovers. GoGo knew nothing about makeup and could have cared less about it, so she'd been pretty reticent when Honey had asked her if she could do hers for her. Still, after much begging and pleading, GoGo finally relented, and Honey had been so happy that she felt it would have been worth the sacrifice even if she'd looked awful when the other girl was done with her. Only she didn't look awful-actually, when she was allowed to look in the mirror after all the work was done, she actually kind of loved what she saw. Who knew that purple lipstick would actually look good on her? Well, Honey had, apparently-she'd probably scientifically analyzed GoGo's skin complexion and hair color to deduce the perfect shades of makeup to use on her.

"Do you like it?" Honey asks eagerly.

"It's-not bad," GoGo answers, and the other girl beamed at her, knowing that that was high praise coming from her.

"That makes me so happy to hear!" Honey beams at her. "I feel like I haven't been able to do a makeover on anyone since…" Her cheerful smile falters for a moment, but she quickly hurries on with, "Well, just for a while! But I'm really glad I got to do one on you tonight-"

"Honey," GoGo cuts in. She had tried to respect her friend's privacy, and she prided herself on the fact that she felt she'd done a good job of that. But her patience was wearing thin on this big secret that Honey Lemon seemed to be trying to hide, and she wasn't about to let the other girl just clam up again and go into the overly-cheerful mode that she did whenever she was trying to avoid talking about it.

"C'mon," she continues, gently squeezing her friend's hand in her own. "You know you can tell me about whatever's going on, right?"

"I…" Honey Lemon seemed to flush slightly, her gaze darting down to their joined hands, and for a moment the shorter girl was afraid that she'd gone too far. But before she can decide whether or not to let go, the blonde's shoulders sink and, just for a moment her perfect, sparkly exterior drops, revealing a more scared, broken side of her that GoGo had never seen before.

"I-I had a best friend back at the beginning of high school, back at my old school," Honey finally says quietly. "We'd known each other since kindergarten, and we were really, really close-we did everything together. I thought I could tell her anything. But then… One night we were having a sleepover, and I told her… I-I came out to her as lesbian."

Oh. Wow. GoGo had not been expecting that. Honestly, maybe she shouldn't have been surprised with the way that Honey Lemon made it very clear that she wasn't interested in guys, although the other girl had figured maybe she was aro/ace. Still, if she was gay, that was totally cool-she had absolutely no problem with that, and she wanted to make sure that her friend knew that.

"Oh, hey, awesome!" she says with a slight smile. "That's really cool-and I'm honestly honored that you trusted me enough to tell me that."

"Y-Yeah?" Honey Lemon offers her a tentative smile of her own.

"Of course!" GoGo answers. "You're already amazing, and the fact that you're basically a gorgeous sapphic goddess just makes you that much cooler!" Wait, where had that come from? She feels her cheeks burning, and Honey Lemon seemed to be ducking her head in embarrassment. She was trying to figure out if she should try to take that back, but then the other girl starts speaking again.

"T-That means a lot to me," she says softly. "That you're so okay with it… M-My best friend… She didn't take it very well…"

"What do you mean she didn't take it well?" GoGo asks, brow furrowing in concern.

"S-She freaked out on me," Honey answers, tears welling up in her eyes. "She called me a pervert, said that I'd only been her friend because I wanted to have an excuse to see her naked without her knowing I was trying to look at her like that…"

"What?" GoGo gasps, anger kindling to life in her chest. "That-That is _so _fucked up! How could she even- You're the sweetest, kindest person I've ever met! There's no way you would ever do something like that!"

"T-Thanks…" Honey Lemon offers her a watery smile. "I-It didn't stop her from telling me she never wanted to see me again… Or from telling the whole school about me…"

"She. Did. What?" GoGo growls, feeling righteous rage flowing through her veins.

"She sent out a group text, made sure the entire school got it," Honey Lemon says softly, looking like she was reliving the whole horrible night. "When I got to school the next morning, everyone knew about me and started treating me like garbage… I even got a few death threats. My parents went to the administration, but they wouldn't do anything about it-even implied that maybe I _had_ been trying to be a pervert and that they were thinking of taking action against me if anyone came forward and said anything. My family ended up having to move to a new town just so I could have some hope of living a normal life. I-It's why no one at school knows I'm gay… I-I just don't want the same thing to happen twice…"

GoGo's heart was breaking for her friend and, without thinking what she was doing, she wraps her arms tightly around her, hugging her close. "I'm so, so sorry," she says softly. "No one should have to go through anything like that, especially not someone as amazing as you…"

Honey Lemon finally broke down fully, and GoGo just holds her, rocking her gently and wanting her to feel safe.

"I will never, ever push you away for being gay, okay?" she says softly. "And I'm not going to tell anyone your secret unless you tell me that it's all right."

"Thank you…" Honey Lemon finally manages to get out, seeming exhausted as she nuzzles into the touch.

"You're welcome," GoGo answers, gently stroking her hair. Deep down inside, she knew that she would do whatever it took to keep Honey safe and to keep anyone from ever hurting her again. It honestly felt good holding her like this, comforting her. Really good, even. And no, she was not at all thinking about how nice it felt to have her head on her chest-

"You're an amazing friend, you know that?" Honey says softly, startling GoGo out of her thoughts.

"Y-You too," GoGo answers, flushing red-what was she even thinking? She wasn't even interested in girls like that-was she? Not prepared to deal with thoughts like that right now, she quickly shoves them away. But deep down the seed had been planted, and only time would tell what would come of it.

"Hey Fred!" The fanboy sees Tadashi smiling and waving as he enters the workshop. "Perfect timing-I just finished installing the updates!"

"Great!" Fred grins back at him, ready to be of whatever assistance he could be.

"Sorry for pulling you away from your work on the presentation," Tadashi adds as the fanboy makes his way over to him. "If I could have gotten someone else…"

"It's okay!" Fred reassures him. "I'm glad to help! And besides, it's nice to take a break from all that typing."

"That's good," Tadashi says, looking relieved, before asking curiously, "How's it coming along?"

"It's going pretty well, I think!" Fred answers, and no his eyes were not at all wandering to the neckline of the other guy's v-neck t-shirt and he definitely wasn't wondering if there was a way to think that a guy had nice abs with it meaning he felt attracted to him. "Y'know, lots of interesting stuff to learn about Mars-I'm having a hard time condensing it down into just one paper!" Yes, he was probably rambling a bit, but he was trying to keep himself from thinking too much about things he would rather not think about.

"Yeah, it's really interesting!" Tadashi agrees with a grin, not seeming to notice the fanboy's conundrum. "And from what I've read, you're doing an excellent job writing about it-seriously, you have a _lot_ of talent!"

"T-Thanks…" Fred flushes slightly at the praise, and internally he wonders if it was normal to blush this much just because a friend said something nice to you.

"So, ready to help me out with the robot?" Tadashi asks, and the other teen happily latches onto the new conversation topic.

"Yes, absolutely! Just show me what to do!" he answers quickly.

"Someone's eager!" Tadashi chuckles before leading him over to wear the little robot made of plywood and pvc pipe was sitting, it's mechanical arm ready to collect bottles of samples of "Mars dust" from the little course that had been set up for it. He picks up the controller and shows Fred how to make the machine go through its functions-going forward, backward, turning, and, of course, using its arm to scoop up the samples. It actually wasn't that hard-Fred was used to playing video games and so he was pretty comfortable using a controller. Overall he was doing a good job with it, but he was struggling a bit with actually getting the arm to grab and hold the sample bottles, which is what they were really trying to test.

"Hold on," Tadashi says after the twentieth failed attempt, looking only slightly less frustrated than Fred felt. "Just… Stop for a second."

"I'm sorry," Fred apologizes, wincing slightly. "I'm trying my best but for some reason I just can't seem to get it…"

"It's okay!" Tadashi hurries to reassure him. "You're just-struggling with it a bit. And that's fine, the rest of us took a long time to figure out the proper technique too! Maybe if I showed you again…"

"No, you've shown me, like, ten times already," Fred quietly groans. "I just don't think I'm cut out for this…"

"I don't believe that!" Tadashi states firmly, frowning in concentration, before seeming to almost light up as an idea come to him. "I've got it!"

"Got what?" Fred asks curiously-he was willing to try just about anything at this point.

"Here." Tadashi comes over and carefully moves Fred's hands into the right positions on the remote control. Then, to the fanboy's great surprise, suddenly he moves so that he was standing behind him, putting his hands over his own.

"W-What are you doing?" Fred stammers.

"Helping you," Tadashi answers with a slight smile, starting to gently guide the fanboy's hands over the controls. If Fred was at all surprised that it actually seemed to be working, it was overshadowed by just how _aware_ he was of Tadashi-the heat of his body, just an inch away from him, radiating to warm his own skin; his gentle breath against his ear; the steady thumping of his heart seeming to synchronize with his own.

"There we go!" Tadashi says softly, making the fanboy's heart skitter erratically in his chest.

"W-What?" Fred gasps.

"You did it-you got a bottle!" Tadashi answers, smiling proudly at the fanboy.

"I-I guess I did…" Fred answers, feeling a bit foolish as he realizes that somehow the robot's arm had gotten it's grabbers around a bottle. How had he missed that happening?

"Think you can do that on your own now?" Tadashi asks, finally releasing his hold on him, and the other teen lets out an involuntary whine as he pull away that he instantly hoped that Tadashi hadn't heard. Seriously, what was going on in his head tonight?

"I-I think so," he finally manages to get out thickly.

"Good." Tadashi's breath warms his cheek and momentarily dazes him, and he wonders when exactly he'd gotten so close to him again. But moments later the other teen is pulling away to go observe the robot again, and the fanboy is left with an extremely confusing tangle of emotions inside his chest that he had no idea how to sort out-or if he even wanted to sort them out for fear of what he'd find.


	3. Chapter 3

It can be funny having a best friend-by whatever forces run the universe, you sometimes both come to a realization at the exact same time. And that's exactly what happened to Fred and GoGo a week after the fateful night of the slumber party and late night robotics practice. It had started out a perfectly normal day-just school as usual. After classes were over, the two were planning to head to the comic book shop for some much needed R&R. But both of them end up hitting obstacles on their way out of school that would change their life forever.

For GoGo, it was as she was hurrying to put her books away so that she could get going. She was just turning to head down the hallway to meet Fred when she found Honey Lemon standing next to her locker.

"Whoa!" GoGo cries, a hand instinctively going to her chest. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry!" Honey Lemon apologizes, giggling in the way that always made GoGo's heart beat just a little bit faster. "Here." She holds a book out to the other girl. "It's your chemistry book-you accidentally left it on class!"

"Oh, wow, thanks!" GoGo flashes her a grateful smile as she accepts the book and puts it in her locker. "I can't believe I almost forgot it, but I guess I was kind of distracted…"

"Big plans for tonight?" Honey Lemon asks, leaning up against the row of lockers, her head tilted in such a way that the light coming in through the window gave her hair an almost halo-esque look.

"N-No," GoGo answers, suddenly finding it slightly hard to swallow. "Just going to the comic book shop with Fred."

"Aw, how fun!" Honey beams at her, her smile absolutely radiant and her lips, recently glossed, looking ridiculously soft and appealing, even as they curve down into a playful pout. "I'd totally go with you guys, but I have to stay after school for an honor council meeting…"

"I-It's okay," GoGo answers, heart beating faster in her chest and fighting the desire to move closer to the other girl. "Maybe next week?"

"Maybe," Honey answers with a quiet hum-GoGo was hanging on her every word in spite of herself. "I'll have to see how my schedule is-I'll be so glad when this dance is over so I have one less thing on my to do list. Maybe we'll finally have more time to hang out!"

"H-Hanging out sounds good!" GoGo agrees, wanting nothing more in that moment than to be able to spend as much time as possible with her.

"Hey!" Honey Lemon says after thinking it over for a moment. "I have to come by the school tomorrow to hang up posters for the dance-any chance that you might want to help me out? I know it's not the most fun thing in the world to do on a Saturday, but maybe we could go out for ice cream or to a movie afterwards?"

"Y-Yeah! That sounds great!" GoGo answers automatically, heart skipping a beat in her chest, only to realize that it kind of sounded like Honey was actually asking her on a date. Was it a date? She couldn't quite read the other girl's intentions on it. But with a slight start, GoGo realized that she wasn't turned off by the idea of going out on a date with Honey. Actually, she _wanted_ it to be a date. Oh gosh. She actually wanted to go on a date with Honey Lemon!

Her mind was reeling, and she barely heard whatever the other girl said as she waved goodbye and headed off down the hallway, leaving behind an intoxicating whiff of her raspberry body spray. As soon as she's out of sight, GoGo finds herself leaning up against her locker for support, backpack clutched tight to her chest, trying to figure out what on Earth had just happened to her.

Fred, for his part, was leaving last period when he spots Tadashi standing across the hallway, apparently waiting for someone, and he can't help but feel just a tiny spark of excitement when the other teen grins and starts heading towards him, making him realize that he was actually waiting for him.

"Hey!" Tadashi says with a warm grin. For once he wasn't wearing his ever present ball cap, and his thick black hair was exposed, looking ridiculously soft and inviting, as if it was just begging the fanboy to run his fingers through it. He couldn't do that without it being super weird, though, right? But oh gosh, he wanted to so badly…

"Fred? Hey, you okay?"

"What? Oh, yes, fine!" Fred answers, snapping out of his daze and realizing with great embarrassment that he'd been so distracted that he'd missed whatever Tadashi had just said to him. Seriously, why was he so fascinated with another guy's hair? It wasn't normal! What was going on in his head right now?

"I just asked if you were ready for our competition on Sunday," Tadashi repeats, a slightly amused look on his face that somehow sent what were most definitely _not_ butterflies flooding through Fred's chest. "I really think we have a chance this year, especially with your report and presentation going for us!"

"I-It's not just mine!" Fred protests, finding himself flushing bright red. "I mean, we worked on it together, so you deserve some credit too!"

"I guess," Tadashi agrees before adding with a completely not adorable grin, "I guess that kind of makes it our baby, huh?"

For a moment Fred completely forgot how to breathe, and the other teen frowns in concern at him, asking, "Are you feeling okay? You're acting kind of off…"

"F-Fine," Fred manages to squeak out.

"You sure?" Tadashi presses, suddenly putting a hand on each side of the fanboy's head and leaning in, and for one wild moment Fred was sure that he was about to kiss him. But after a moment the engineer says, "Your pupils are a bit dilated-could be a sign of a concussion… Did you hit your head at any point recently?"

"What? No!" Fred answers, quickly pulling away, feeling like his skin was burning where Tadashi's hands had been. "L-Look, I have to go, I promised GoGo that I'd meet up with her today…" he manages to get out, feeling like his heart was going to beat right out of his chest if he stayed here one minute longer.

"All right…" Tadashi agrees, still seeming concerned but not wanting to force the issue. "Just try to be careful today, okay? Maybe go to bed early tonight. I don't want you accidentally hurting yourself, especially not with our competition being this weekend."

"R-Right…" Fred answers, starting to back off down the hallway, just needing to get away from Tadashi and the rather worrisome feelings that he kept causing him to have.

"Remember we're loading up tomorrow in the parking lot at 5:00-don't be late, we don't want to leave you behind!" Tadashi calls after him.

"I-I won't be," Fred manages to get out before turning around and taking off down the hallway, the image of Tadashi being so close burned in his mind's eye, and one thought playing on repeat over and over again in his mind: he'd actually wanted Tadashi to kiss him. More than that-he'd wanted to kiss Tadashi.

Both of the best friends reach the bike rack at the same time, although it's GoGo who's the first to speak.

"I need to talk to you," she tells Fred, latching onto his arm. "Like, _now_."

"O-Okay," Fred agrees-usually he would have complained about her almost ripping off one of his limbs, but right now he was so out of his depth that he doesn't even have it in him to complain.

"Are we good here?" GoGo asks, glancing around for any unwanted ears that might be listening in to their conversation.

"Yeah, I think so," Fred answers, doing the same and not noticing anyone nearby except a few stray pigeons pecking away at the remains of a rather stale-looking bagel.

"Good." GoGo nods and seems to be taking a moment to gather her thoughts before finally blurting out, "I think Honey Lemon just asked me out!"

"Wait, what?" That was the last thing the fanboy had expected to hear right now.

"Like, she actually asked you to go on a date with her?" he stammers out.

"I-I think so?" GoGo answers, nervously chewing on her lip, a sure sign of her emotional distress. "I mean, it could have just been a, 'Hey, let's hang out' type of thing but the way she said it… I'm pretty sure she meant it as more than just a friends thing…"

"O-Oh my gosh… What did you say?" Fred breathes, not sure what exactly he wanted to hear but at least finding GoGo's problem easier to deal with than his own for the moment.

"I said 'Yes' before I realized that she meant it as anything more than a friendship thing!" GoGo answers. "And now…"

"Now what?" Fred presses. "A-Are you thinking of backing out?"

"No!" GoGo's answers comes out a lot fiercer than either of them had anticipated, and her cheeks flush momentarily red before she says in a softer but still serious tone, "No. I-I don't want to back out. I think… I think I actually want it to be a date." She looks up at her friend and adds quickly, "I know that you had a thing for her, though, so if you're not okay with it, I will totally call it off-"

"N-No, it's fine," Fred manages to get out, head reeling slightly-this was all happening so fast…

"You sure?" GoGo looks at him skeptically. "You don't look like it's fine… Seriously, if it's not okay with you-" She cuts herself off as she sees her friend sinking to the ground, sliding down the wall until he had his head against his knees and- oh gosh, was he _crying_? In all the time that she'd known him, GoGo had only seen her friend cry at most two times, and so she knew that something was seriously wrong.

"Fred, hey…" she says softly, crouching down next to him and putting a hand on his shoulder, desperate to comfort him and wishing that she was better at this emotional stuff. "Look, seriously, I'll cancel with Honey Lemon, I'll tell her that I can't go on a date with her-"

"I-It's not Honey Lemon…" Fred barely manages to get out.

"Then Freddy, what is it?" GoGo asks, the childish nickname she'd used for him when they were toddlers slipping out as she wraps an arm around him. "C'mon, you know that you can talk to me about anything…"

"I-I think I'm gay…" The words were so soft that the girl was pretty sure she'd misheard him at first.

"Fred, did you just say…?"

"GoGo, I think I'm gay," Fred repeats, looking up at her, tears staining his cheeks and his eyes already red from crying.

"Oh my gosh…" GoGo lets out a quiet gasp in spite of herself as the pieces from the past month start to fall into place, only to instantly regret it when she sees her best friend flinching away, as if she'd just called him the most horrible slur in the whole world.

"Hey!" She quickly pulls him closer, refusing to let him feel like he was alone in this. "Hey, it's going to be okay," she tells him, and he all but collapses into her arms. GoGo awkwardly starts rubbing circles on his back with her palms, and something about that seems to calm him just the tiniest bit so she keeps doing it until his crying seems to be lessening.

"It's Tadashi, right?" she says gently when Fred seems to have recovered himself slightly.

"Y-Yeah…" Fred manages to get out, not quite meeting her eyes.

"Look, if you're worried that I'll be upset because I used to have a crush on him, then you don't need to be worried about that," GoGo tells him firmly. "And if you're freaking out because you think I'll judge you for this, you know I'd never do that. Besides, I just told you that I want to date a girl, so I think we're in the same boat here-it's not like I can say anything about you wanting to be with a guy!"

"I-It's not that…" Fred manages to get out.

"Are you afraid that Tadashi doesn't like you back?" GoGo asks, trying to figure out why he was still so upset.

"No…"

"Then what is the problem?" GoGo was trying not to get impatient, but she really wasn't good at these emotional guessing games.

"My parents are going to kill me…" Fred finally gets out, his voice barely a whisper.

"What?" GoGo frowns at this answer-it certainly wasn't what she'd been expecting. "Why would you think-?"

"Y-You remember my cousin, Peter?"

"Yeah, of course-the one who lives in New York?"

"Y-Yeah, him…"

"Wow-I haven't actually heard you talk about him in forever… Weren't you guys, like, super close? What ever happened to him?"

"A-About two years ago… H-He came out to his parents… Said he was dating his best friend, Wade… He got thrown out. My entire family disowned him-we're not allowed to even talk about him anymore…"

"Wait, what?" GoGo gasps, righteous fury kindling in her chest. "T-That is completely fucked up! They kicked him out for being gay?! How could they do that?!"

"I-I don't know, but it happened," Fred answers, clutching his knees to his chest. "And if my parents ever find out that I want to date guys…"

"Hold on." GoGo could understand why he was so freaked out, but she wasn't about to let him get all worked up without thinking this through logically and so she pulls away so that she could look him in the eyes. "First of all: What did your parents think of your cousin being gay?"

"My mom pretty much sided with my aunt on it…" Fred answers quietly. "I-I think my dad wasn't that against it… I know he fought my mom a lot on it, and once I think I remember her yelling at him for sending money to help Peter and he said he was going to keep doing it whether she liked it or not 'cause he's family and you don't hurt family like that…"

"Well then? There you go!" GoGo gently squeezes his shoulder. "Even if your mom isn't happy with it, it sounds like your dad would be pretty okay with it and like he'd stand up to your mom if she tried to hurt you! If he's the type of dad I think he is, he'll put you being happy over whatever her feelings are!"

"Y-Yeah?" Fred looks just the tiniest bit hopeful as he finally meets her gaze.

"Definitely," GoGo answers firmly. "And you know what else?"

"W-What?"

"Even if they do kick you out, you won't be homeless. You can come live with me!"

"You think your parents would be okay with that?" Fred asks, eyes going wide.

"Well, I'd have to talk to them, but yeah," GoGo answers, nodding firmly. "I don't know if they'll be big fans of me dating a girl, but I know that at the end of the day they'll want me to be happy and that goes the same for you. They already think of you like you're their son, so there's no way that they'll let you get stuck living on the streets!"

"W-Wow…" Fred looks momentarily at a loss for words, but then he reaches out and wraps his arms tightly around the other teen. "Thank you… You have no idea how much this means to me…" he says softly.

"Hey." GoGo hugs him tightly back. "I'm always here for you, okay?"

"Yeah," Fred answers softly. "I know…"

"Good." GoGo smiles gently down at him before saying wryly, "So… Both of us turning out to be gay in one afternoon. This has definitely been a crazy day!"

Fred involuntarily snorts at that, slightly pulling away to smile back up at her before asking tentatively, "So… Do you think you, like, only like girls? I mean, you did seem to have a pretty big crush on Tadashi for a while…"

"I dunno," GoGo admits with a slight shrug. "I mean, sure he's handsome, but I don't know if there was more to it than just thinking he's aesthetically attractive? I guess I could be bi or something. I don't know if I'm ready to put a label on it yet when I'm still trying to figure this all out-I mean, I just figured out that I like one girl, I think that's a big enough revelation for one day!"

"Yeah, I guess you have a point," Fred laughs wetly, swiping at his eyes with the sleeve to start wiping away the tears-he was still embarrassed that he'd broken down like that, but it was something of a relief to have gotten that all out anyways.

"How about you?" GoGo asks. "Any clue?"

"I… Think I need more time to think about it too," Fred answers. "I mean, I thought I had a really huge crush on Honey, but I honestly didn't know anything about her except for thinking she was really pretty when I saw her in the hallway. Like, maybe I only thought I was into her because I thought I was supposed to like girls instead of guys and I was just projecting that onto her? Tadashi…. Tadashi is the first time one of my crushes has felt… Real, y'know? Like there's actually something to it more than just silly butterflies? So I think I may just be plain gay, but I'm guess I still need to figure out where exactly I fall on the spectrum…"

"Well, I say we both have plenty of time to figure it out," GoGo states firmly. "No need to pressure ourselves to put a label on it when we're just trying to figure this out!"

"You're absolutely right," Fred agrees with a slight smile before sighing and saying, "Wow… You're right, that was a lot to process all in one afternoon…"

"Definitely," GoGo agrees before adding, "And you know what I think?"

"What?" Fred asks.

"I think we both deserve to just take a break and relax from all of this," GoGo states firmly. "We're both pretty emotional right now, and I don't think this is a good time for either of us to be trying to figure out labels or how we're going to handle our crushes. We should just go do something fun-breathe a little-before we figure out what to do next."

"Sounds good," Fred agrees, grinning up at her.

"So, want to go back to my house and have a superhero movie marathon?" GoGo asks, glad to see him smiling again.

"Can we make it Harry Potter?" Fred asks hopefully.

"We definitely can," GoGo answers.

"Awesome, let's go, then!" Fred chuckles, standing up. And as the two mount the bike and head off towards GoGo's house, the fanboy can't help but feel for the first time today that things were really going to be okay.


	4. Chapter 4

The rest of the night was spent at GoGo's house, the two best friends holed up in her room watching their favorite movies about the teenage wizard and his friends. It was oddly comforting-Fred had heard somewhere that people reread and rewatched the same books and movies because they enjoyed the certainty that the story would always turn out the same way. You knew how it would end, and even if it wasn't a happy ending, at least you knew what was coming. With his own future so uncertain right now, he definitely was glad to know that, at the end of the day, Harry, Hermione, and Ron would be okay and triumph over evil.

"You doing okay?" GoGo asks halfway through _Prisoner of Azkaban_.

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine-why do you ask?" Fred returns, looking up at her from where his head was resting in her lap-maybe some people thought it was weird how few physical boundaries they had with each other, but they were like siblings, and even though GoGo wasn't a big fan of cuddling she put up with it because she knew Fred liked it, which basically made her the best friend ever in his books.

"I just… I know how upset you were earlier," GoGo answers. "And I wanted to make sure that you're not still freaking out. It's okay if you are! I just want to make sure that you're not holding in stuff that's going to psych you out or make you think stuff you shouldn't be thinking about yourself."

"Trust me, I'm okay," Fred reassures her. "I mean, there's nothing like a good Harry Potter marathon to make you feel better about everything, right?"

"I suppose…" GoGo replies, not looking fully convinced. Seeing this, Fred lets out a quiet sigh before admitting,

"All right, so maybe I'm still a tiny bit freaked out-I mean, this was kind of a lot to take in all in one afternoon. But… On some level, I'm kind of relieved?"

"How so?" GoGo asks, turning the volume down on the movie so that they could talk without distractions.

"I guess… This kind of explains a lot of things?" Fred answers, playing with the fringe of the blanket hanging off of the other teen's bed. "Like… I'd be lying if I said I hadn't had… thoughts about other guys before? But I never really let myself really think about it 'cause I knew how my parents would react and I didn't want to go there. I thought maybe there was something wrong with me for feeling attracted to dudes and there was no way I could ever bring it up without bringing a whole bunch of shit down on myself…"

"Oh man, Fred..." GoGo says softly. "I wish you'd said something so I could have helped you... You know that I'd never judge you for anything you ever tell me, right?"

"Yeah, I do," Fred answers, gratefully nuzzling against her. "And I'm sorry I didn't say anything earlier…"

"Well, the important thing is that you know that you have me now and that I'm behind you one-hundred percent," GoGo answers, deciding to put up with him being extremely snuggly at the moment-she wanted to do whatever it took to make Fred feel okay again.

"So, how about you?" Fred asks softly after a few minutes of contented silence. "Did you ever… Y'know, have feelings about a girl before this?"

"I honestly don't know," GoGo admits. "You know I never really let myself think about crushes too much if I could help it so if I did I probably just shoved it away. I guess Tadashi was kind of my first time letting myself think about maybe being interested in someone and honestly I think that was probably because I felt weird being one of the only people in our class who's never been in a relationship, and he seemed like a decent choice if I was going to date anyone. But Honey Lemon… I dunno. Something about her…"

"Aw!" Fred grins up at her. "You're _blushing_!"

"I am not!" GoGo protests.

"You totally are!" Fred answers gleefully. "GoGo Tomago, you are actually blushing!"

"Oh shut up!" GoGo lightly shoves his shoulder. In retaliation, Fred grabs a pillow that was lying nearby and whacks her with it.

"Admit it! Admit that Honey Lemon makes you blush!" he declares.

"Not in a million years!" GoGo answers, grabbing a pillow of her own and whacking him back. Within moments it had escalated into a full-on pillow fight, and it didn't stop until, laughing, they collapse onto the floor, Fred having declared GoGo the winner after she'd pulled him into a half nelson. They both have to take a minute to catch their breath, and then fanboy finally speaks again.

"So, what are you going to do about the maybe-sort-of date tomorrow?" he asks GoGo. "I mean, I know you're planning on going on it, but how are you going to find out if it's an actual date or not?"

"I dunno," GoGo admits with a slight shrug, hugging a pillow to her stomach as she tries to get her lungs back to their normal working order. "I'll probably just show up at the school and see what happens. I like to think on my feet, y'know?"

"That makes sense," Fred agrees before sighing and adding, "I have no idea how I'm going to approach Tadashi on all of this… I mean, at least I know that he's gay, so that's good? But that doesn't mean that he actually likes me-just because he likes dudes doesn't mean that he's attracted to me specifically."

"True…" GoGo agrees with a quiet hum. "But can I be honest with you for a second?"

"Uh, sure?"

"Well, I never wanted to say anything 'cause you hadn't said anything about actually liking Tadashi-y'know, that way? But those times I'd pick you up from robotics club and I'd get there a little early so I'd just sit off to the side while you finished working? Whenever I would catch Tadashi watching you when he thought you wouldn't see him-he always looked like he thought he was staring at an angel or something."

"Oh. My. Gosh." Fred squeaks, burying his face in a pillow.

"Ha, now who's blushing?" GoGo teases him, although her tone was gentle instead of mocking.

"A-Are you being serious?" the fanboy finally manages to get out.

"Completely," GoGo answers firmly. "Trust me, I wouldn't mess with you on something like that."

"W-Wow…" Fred hugs the pillow tighter but peeks over the top of it to look at his best friend so he could see her face and tell for himself that she wasn't just making things up. "So… You think he actually _likes_ me likes me?"

"I'd say it's pretty much a definite," GoGo confirms.

"Oh my gosh… Oh my gosh…" Fred breathes. "W-What should I do? Should I bring him flowers or something? Is it weird to bring another guy flowers?"

"I'd say hold off on the flowers for right now," GoGo tells him gently but firmly. "I know that big, grandiose gestures are kind of your thing but you might scare him off a bit by going overboard. Maybe start by just talking to him?"

"Talking is good," Fred agrees, glad that he had someone to help keep him from taking things too far like he had a bad habit of doing. "When do you think I should talk to him?"

"When's the next time you're going to see him?" GoGo asks.

"Tomorrow afternoon?" Fred answers. "We're getting ready to head out to our big robotics tournament so I'm supposed to get there early to help the team load everything we need up before driving down to the city where it's being held in. Do you think maybe I should wait until after the meet is over to talk to him so I don't make things awkward by bringing that up right before the competition?"

"With most people I'd say yes," GoGo replies, seeming to be thinking hard. "But with you? Maybe not."

"Why not?" Fred asks.

"Because I know you-when you've got something on your mind, you tend to act a little crazy until you spill your guts on it," GoGo answers with a wry smile.

"I do not!" Fred protests.

"Sixth grade. You were throwing me a surprise birthday party. You stress ate halfway through an apple before realizing it was made of wax," GoGo deadpans.

"Oh… Yeah, good point," Fred agrees with a sheepish grin. "Still, in my defense, it was made of edible wax so at least I didn't get sick off of it!"

"Thank goodness, or else we would have spent my birthday party in the ER getting your stomach pumped," GoGo laughs before going slightly serious again. "What I'm trying to say is-the sooner you talk to him about this, the better for both of you. Don't push it out. Heck, get to school super early tomorrow so you can talk to him alone before all the others get there! You'll feel a lot better having it out in the open one way or another-and hopefully you won't end up eating any more wax fruit."

"Point taken!" Fred laughs before letting out a quiet breath and saying, "Wow… I'm actually doing this!"

"We're both doing it," GoGo answers, gently squeezing one of his hands. "I mean, I'm kind of confessing to my crush tomorrow too, if that makes you feel any better."

"It does, actually," Fred admits, giving her a grateful smile. "Thanks, GoGo-you're an amazing friend, you know that?"

"Yes, yes I do," GoGo replies playfully before adding, "And, for the record, you're a really amazing friend too."

"Aw!" Fred beams at her. "C'mere!"

"No hugs!" GoGo protests, batting his hands away. "Sheesh! Crushing on a guy is making you waaaay too mushy!"

"Hey, I resent that! I was plenty mushy before I started crushing on Tadashi!" Fred answers playfully.

"Whatever!" GoGo playfully rolls her eyes before surprising the fanboy by actually hugging him first. "I love you, you big nerd," she tells him. "And no matter what happens, I'm here for you, okay?"

"Yeah, I know," Fred answers, gratefully hugging her back. "And I'm here for you too, okay?"

"I know," GoGo reassures him before finally pulling away. "Okay, enough of this sentimental stuff-people are going to start thinking I'm going soft! Back to the Harry Potter marathon?"

"Back to the Harry Potter marathon!" Fred agrees with a grin, happily settling in next to her to continue watching the movie. He couldn't have asked for a better friend than GoGo. And if she thought that everything was going to be okay, then he had a good feeling that maybe it really would be.

The next day, GoGo arrived at the school half an hour before she was even supposed to be there to meet with Honey Lemon. Usually she liked to be places on time, but getting here this early was a sure sign that she was a lot more nervous than she was letting herself admit to. She was just debating doing some basic stretching exercises to work off some of excess energy while she waited, only to look up and see Honey Lemon crossing the parking lot towards her, smiling and waving. One thing she'd forgotten: the other girl actually had a penchant for being early to everything too, so she'd actually probably gotten here at just the right time.

"Hey, GoGo!" Honey Lemon greets her with her trademark sunny smile. "Thank you _so_ much for agreeing to help me out with this today, you are seriously the best!"

"I-It's not a problem," GoGo mumbles, cheeks flushing bright pink in spite of herself.

"Well it's still incredibly sweet of you, and I promise to take you out for the best gelato in the whole city as a 'thank you' afterwards!" Honey Lemon declares.

GoGo was just trying to get up the nerve to ask her about whether or not this was an actual date when the other girl starts tugging her towards the door, saying eagerly, "C'mon, we've got work to do!"

Asking about the date thing could wait, GoGo decides. Right now she should focus on helping Honey, and then when they were done she could ask. It wasn't that she was chickening out! She was just… waiting for the right time. Yeah, that's what it was.

The two spend the next few hours liberally covering every empty space of wall with posters. It was more work than GoGo had expected, but on some level it was actually kind of fun since she was getting to spend time with Honey, the two of them laughing and talking the whole time. The other girl apparently felt the same way, because as they tack up the last couple of flyers, she turns to her and says,

"Thank you _so_ much for helping me out with this! I usually end up doing this all by myself and it gets kind of lonely being in an empty school all alone, y'know?"

"I'll take it you do this a lot?" GoGo asks curiously.

"Yeah-I mean, whenever I'm on a committee a lot of the time I end up picking up a lot of the slack," Honey sighs as she puts the empty poster box into a recycling bin. "I try to get other people to volunteer, and I've even tried assigning people to do different things, but somehow I still end up doing most of the work…"

"Probably because they know that you'll do the work for them if they push it out long enough," GoGo notes with a small frown.

"Probably…" Honey Lemon agrees with a wry smile. "But it's not like I have much of a choice-either I do the work or it doesn't get done, and then I feel terrible because things end up being ruined."

"But it's not your fault! It's the fault of those lazy bums for not doing their work!" GoGo protests.

"I know that," Honey Lemon sighs. "But I'm the 'responsible' one so somehow the blame always comes back to me even if it isn't my fault."

"That's really messed up," GoGo tells her-usually she would have told someone dealing with a problem like this to just woman up and make the people who were being lazy get the work done, but she could tell that Honey was already trying her hardest to do just that and there wasn't much she could do about it.

"Why do you do it?" GoGo asks as they walk back to the supply closet to return the stapler that they'd borrowed. "I mean, if you get stuck doing all the work…"

"I mean, I do enjoy what I do," Honey Lemon answers as she unlocks the door and places the stapler on a shelf. "It's fun for me-I kind of thrive on having a million things going at once, y'know?"

"I can see that," GoGo agrees. She wasn't much of one for working with other people, but she was a major adrenaline junky so she understood the need to constantly have energy buzzing through your veins.

"And, I mean, even if it wasn't that I enjoyed it so much, I'd still probably do it because it'll look super good on my college resume," Honey Lemon adds with a slight smile as she locks the closet back up and starts heading for the door.

"Trying to get into an Ivy League school?" GoGo asks wryly, following after her.

"No, not aiming quite that high," Honey Lemon laughs. "But somewhere that fits my interests a lot better-SFIT!"

"SFIT? No way!" GoGo gasps.

"I know, I know." Honey Lemon lightly rolls her eyes. "Most people think it's not exactly a school a girl should be attending because it's really hard for women to break into most science fields…"

"Screw what they think!" GoGo tells her fiercely. "That's not going to keep me from applying!"

"You want to go to SFIT too?" Honey Lemon asks, her whole face lighting up.

"Yep! Mechanical engineering!" GoGo answers proudly. "You?"

"Chemistry, what else?" Honey Lemon happily giggles.

"I should have known!" GoGo laughs.

"Wow, this is kind of amazing!" Honey Lemon says, practically beaming at her. "I mean, if we both get in-"

"I think you mean _when_ we both get in!" GoGo cuts in.

"All right then, when we both get in," Honey Lemon laughs, "we'll be going to the same school so we'll still be able to see each other-maybe we'll even be able to take some of the same classes!"

"That would be totally awesome!" GoGo says, grinning at her.

"Yeah!" Honey Lemon happily beams back at her as they step out into the afternoon sunshine. "Wow, it sure is bright out here!"

"It is!" GoGo agrees, feeling oddly giddy.

"So, ready to go get that gelato I promised?" Honey Lemon asks. "You totally deserve it after all your hard work!"

"I-It was nothing…" GoGo answers, suddenly feeling nervous as she was reminded of the main reason that she was actually here today.

"Hey, you okay?" Honey Lemon frowns as she studies her expression. "You look a little tense…"

"I'm fine!" GoGo answers quickly-a little _too_ quickly, she realizes as soon as the words are out of her mouth.  
"GoGo, if you don't like gelato, it's totally okay-I promise I won't be offended if you want to get something else!" Honey Lemon tells her, obviously trying to find the root of the problem.

"I-It's not that…" GoGo quietly mumbles, her face flushing red as she realizes that any chance she had of just playing it cool was long gone.

"What is it, then?" Honey Lemon asks gently.

"I just…" Oh gosh. GoGo was pretty sure that her heart was about to come bursting right out of her chest-she'd never felt like this except for that time she tried to complete an Iron Man challenge back in sixth grade! Still, she takes a deep breath and forces herself to keep going. "W-When you asked me to come help you yesterday… It kind of sounded like you…. Like you were maybe asking me on a date?"


	5. Chapter 5

It was Honey Lemon's turn to blush this time. "O-Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry…! I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable…!" she cries. "W-What I meant was…" She trails off, looking too embarrassed to continue.

"So… You weren't asking me out?" GoGo asks, her shoulders slumping in spite of herself-great, she'd totally misjudged the situation _again_. When was she going to catch a break when it came to crushes? Maybe it was better if she just stayed out of the romance field, obviously she wasn't cut out for it…

But then Honey Lemon catches her completely off guard by asking hesitantly, "D-Did you want it to be?"

"Well… Yeah," GoGo admits, feeling a small spark of hope kindling to life in her chest again.

"Really?" Honey Lemon breathes, eyes lighting up. "Y-You mean… You'd actually like to go on a date with me?"

"Does it look like I'm telling someone else around here that I want to go on a date with them?" GoGo answers with a small grin-wait, was this actually happening?

"Oh my gosh… Oh my gosh!" Honey Lemon breathes before grinning back and saying, "Y-Yeah! I'd totally love to go on a date with you!"

"Great!" GoGo answers with a small grin of her own. "So, where exactly do you want to go?"

"Well… I know we talked about ice cream, and maybe we could go see a movie or something?" Honey replies after a moment. "I mean, I know it's not the most exciting first date in the world, but…"

"No." GoGo reaches over and gently takes her hand in her own. "It's perfect."

"Yeah?" Honey lemon smiles hopefully at her.

"Yeah," GoGo agrees before nodding her head in the direction of where her bike is parked. "C'mon, let's go!"

"Okay!" Honey Lemon beams at her and squeezes her hand before happily following after her.

They're halfway to the bike before something occurs to GoGo and she says, "Um, hey, is there something we can do first?"

"Sure!" Honey Lemon answers. "What's up?"

"Well, I have a friend and he had something kind of important going on today and I wanted to make sure how he's doing…" GoGo replies.

"Say no more!" Honey Lemon tells her. "We can absolutely do that!"

"Thank you." GoGo flashes her a grateful smile before heading off towards the parking lot where she knew the robotics team was supposed to be meeting, curious to find out how things had gone for Fred and Tadashi.

Fred had Heathcliff drop him off a block from the school an hour before he was actually supposed to arrive for load up. The last thing he needed today was to have to explain to the rest of the team why he was being dropped off in a limo (he was still trying to keep his parents' financial status on the down low because he knew from experience just how weird people could act around him when they found out the truth.) Today was about him and Tadashi, and he wasn't going to let anyone or anything ruin that for him if he could help it. As he walks the last stretch to the school, he puts his earbuds in, listening to a playlist that he'd specifically made for today which was composed of the most inspiring nerd songs that he could find in order keep his confidence up. He was still nervous as hell about how this would all work out, but he was going to give it his best shot.

Fortunately his wait in the parking lot for Tadashi to arrive wasn't too long (if it had been, he probably would have driven himself crazy playing different scenarios of how things might go.) About fifteen minutes after he'd taken a seat under a tree in the school parking lot, the engineer arrived in the parking lot, riding in a truck with Hiro and a woman the fanboy could only guess must be the boys' aunt from Tadashi's descriptions of her.

Fred gets up from his seat on the ground and heads over to see if they needed any help with the bags in the back of the truck-after all, who said that chivalry was dead?  
"Hey Tadashi!" Fred greets the older teen as he steps out of the cab.

"Wha- Fred? What are you doing here so early?" Tadashi asks, looking surprised but not displeased to see him.

"I'm just-really excited for this trip, I guess!" Fred answers, trying to keep his tone casual. "I mean, I've never really been on a trip with a club before, so I'm pretty pumped about it!"

"All right then," Tadashi chuckles, apparently deciding not to question it.

"Oh my goodness, is this the famous Fred I keep hearing about?"

The fanboy turns to see the rather petite lady who had been driving the truck grinning up at him, and was it his imagination or was Tadashi actually blushing a tiny bit? If he was, he managed to keep his composure as he says, "Fred, this is my aunt, Aunt Cass. Aunt Cass, this is my friend from the robotics club who's been helping me with the paper and presentation, Fred."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am," Fred says politely-if there was one thing that he'd learned from all the formal events his parents had made him go to over the years, it was how to act properly when meeting someone who could be of great importance to his future, immediate or otherwise.

"Oh, he's got such good manners!" Aunt Cass says, beaming at him. "Tadashi, no wonder you're always going on about him!"

"Aunt Cass!" Tadashi protests, not able to meet Fred's eyes and easily blushing enough for the both of them. Still, the fanboy couldn't help but feel a bit of hope-Tadashi actually talked about him at home?

"All right, all right," Aunt Cass laughs, her eyes sparkling mischievously as she goes to let the back of truck bed down. "I get the picture. My lips are sealed!"

Fred felt just the tiniest bit of disappointment-he wanted to know what Tadashi said about him! Still, he dutifully gets to work on helping the others with the bags-finding out the truth could wait.

Unfortunately, he never did get a good chance to question Aunt Cass-almost as soon as all the baggage was out of the truck, Tadashi was all but shoving her back into the driver's seat, and after a quick round of hugs with her nephews she was driving off down the street towards home. Well, there went Fred's one chance to find out what Tadashi thought about him the easy way. Now he'd have to go the more direct route.

"Hey, um, Dashi?" he says, feeling like his stomach was churning the contents of a cement mixer as he tries to think of the proper words to say-he'd never confessed his feelings to anyone before and he was terrified that he was going to majorly screw this up.

"What's up?" Tadashi asks, and Fred was all but having a heart attack as he turns the full power of those soul-melting brown eyes on him.

"I-I just… U-Um… C-Could I talk to you about something?" the fanboy just barely manages to stammer out.

"Sure," Tadashi answers, pushing his bangs back out of his face in a way that was somehow making Fred go weak at the knees. "What's up?"

"M-Maybe in private?" the fanboy answers weakly.

Something akin to understanding flashes in the other man's eyes, but his only response is to turn to the younger boy who was watching their exchange with great interest and saying, "Hiro, could you head down to the club room and start bringing up the stuff we're going to need to load into Coach Shiro's trailer?"

"Why do I have to do it alone?" Hiro pouts up at him. "What are you going to be doing while I'm doing all the work?"

"Hiro, I'll be down in a minute," Tadashi answers firmly. "I just need to talk to Fred real quick and then we'll come help you."

"...Are you guys going to be kissing?" Hiro asks, making a face.

"HIRO!" Tadashi turns beet red and pulls off his cap as if to whack the younger boy with it. Hiro obviously had experienced that form of punishment often enough to know that it wasn't an something that he wanted to repeat and so he quickly scuttles off towards the building to do as he'd been told, although he turns back and sticks his tongue out at his brother as soon as he's safely out of range before hurrying into the relative safety of the school.

"Brothers…" Tadashi sighs, giving Fred an apologetic smile. "I love my otouto to pieces, but sometimes I swear, he can be such a little shit…"

"I-It's okay," Fred answers, rubbing the back of his neck. He'd never had siblings himself so he didn't have any frame of reference, and he decides to just not question it.

"So, um… What exactly did you want to talk to me about?" Tadashi asks, putting his hat back on and giving the fanboy something of an almost shy-looking smile.

"I…" Fred wasn't sure how exactly to proceed from here-it was like his brain was freezing up like a phone stuck on lock screen.

"Look, just forget what Hiro said about the kissing thing, okay?" Tadashi says gently. "I don't know what's gotten into him lately, Aunt Cass says she thinks his teenage hormones are starting to kick in and it's making him act crazy…"

"I-I actually wouldn't mind kissing." The words come tumbling out of Fred's mouth before he even realizes that they're there and within moments of realizing what he's just said he turns bright red-oh gosh, had he actually just said that?!

"W-What?" Tadashi looks at him with a slightly deer-in-the-headlights expression, obviously not at all prepared for what he'd just heard.

"F-Forget it!" Fred stammers out. "I-I'm sorry, I don't even know why I said that-"

His words are cut off as Tadashi takes a step closer to him, closing the short distance between them and so close that the fanboy easily could have kissed him right then and there if he wanted to-and he wanted to, but he was trying to hold out until he knew for sure what was going on.

"Y-You want to kiss me?" Tadashi asks softly.

"K-Kind of? Yeah…" Fred admits, feeling like all the blood in his body was rushing straight to is cheeks and making him slightly light-headed.

"But I thought you said you weren't…" Tadashi starts, searching the fanboy's eyes with his own.

"I-I didn't think I was either," Fred answers, swallowing thickly. "But then I met you and it kind of made me think about some things and I realized that maybe I am? I-I at least know that I think you're hella attractive and pretty much the most amazing person I've ever met and that anyone would be seriously lucky to get to go on a date with you…"

"O-Oh my gosh…" Tadashi breathes, eyes wide. "Y-You actually…?"

"Yeah," Fred answers, feeling a smile of relief starting to twitch at the corners of his mouth. "How about you? Do you… Y'know, feel the same way about me?"

"From the first time I saw you standing out in the hallway in front of robotics club," Tadashi answers, smiling shyly back.

"Well-glad we're on the same page, then!" Fred says with a grin.

"Y-Yeah," Tadashi agrees, grinning back at him.

"So… Where exactly do we go from here?" Fred asks-he was majorly glad that they'd gotten past the hard part, but he honestly hadn't thought he'd get this far so he had no idea what he was supposed to do next.

"Well… I think you said something about kissing?" Tadashi answers, a slightly mischievous look in his eyes.

"That can definitely be arranged!" Fred agrees with a grin-he wasn't about to turn an opportunity like this down! He gently cups the other teen's cheeks with his hands as he leans in, hoping that he was doing this right since he had absolutely no experience with kissing but hoping that his years' worth of fanfic reading experience wouldn't be wrong. Tadashi's gorgeous brown eyes flutter shut, the softest smile gracing his lips as they make contact. It was everything the fanboy had ever hoped for in a first kiss-soft and sweet but still enough to make his head spin.

"W-Wow…" he breathes when they finally break apart.

"Y-Yeah…" Tadashi agrees, eyes shining as he grins at him-obviously it had been as good for him as it had been for Fred.

The fanboy was about to say something more when suddenly their illusion of being all alone in their own little world was shattered by the sound of a familiar voice saying, "OH. MY. GOSH. You guys were actually kissing?! GROSS!"

"Hiro!" Tadashi cries, glaring over at his little brother. "Get OUT of here!"

"It's okay," Fred puts in before the other teen can get too flustered. "If he wants to complain, then he doesn't have to watch!" Then he leans in as if to kiss Tadashi again, and Hiro instantly starts gagging before running back into the school building so that he didn't have to watch.

"Well, I think you might have actually found a way to make Hiro keep his nose out of other people's business!" Tadashi says, bursting out laughing.

"Glad to help!" Fred chuckles before asking, "So-want to actually give this a second try?"

"I thought you'd never ask!" Tadashi answers with a grin.

GoGo leads Honey in the direction of the parking lot where Fred had told her that the robotics team was loading up the van. She was in a bit of a daze at the moment, but she couldn't leave the school without finding out how her best friend was fairing and either congratulating him or else offering him some comfort. As excited as she was to start her date with Honey Lemon, friends came first and always would, so she'd be damned if she neglected her duties as wingwoman and didn't check on the state of her friend's well being.

What she didn't expected when she reached the proper parking lot and finally spotted Fred was to find him in total liplock with the guy he'd been crushing on. What she'd expected even less was for Honey Lemon to squeal loudly in excitement and cry out, "Oh my gosh, Dashi! You finally asked him out?!"

"Hold on, what?" GoGo stares up at her in utter and complete shock as the two guys break apart, both looking slightly embarrassed, Fred seeming as surprised as his best friend when Tadashi shyly rubs the back of his neck and answers,

"Well, not exactly asked him out yet, but I was getting to that…"

"Awww!" Honey Lemon beams at him. "That's so cute! I can't believe you actually finally did it!"

"And it looks like things are going good with you and GoGo?" Tadashi gestures to the other girl standing next to her.

"Yep! We are actually about to head out on a date!" Honey Lemon tells him eagerly.

"No way! That's so awesome!" Tadashi grins at her.

"HOLD ON!" GoGo, feeling slightly overwhelmed and putting her hands up to signal for them to stop. "You guys know each other?"

"Of course!" Honey Lemon answers with a smile, looking down at her. "We were in mathletes together back in sophomore year and we've been best friends ever since!"

"A-And you guys were talking about us to each other?" Fred asks, gesturing to himself and GoGo.

"Kind of…" Tadashi answers, turning slightly pink. "I'm sorry if that's really weird! It's just I got a crush on you about the same time Honey got a crush on GoGo so we've kind of been trying to… I guess the best way to put it is help each other get over our social awkwardness?"

"Oh my gosh…" Fred breathes before suddenly bursting out laughing and saying, "GoGo and I have been doing the same thing but about you guys!"

"You're kidding!" Honey Lemon cries, beaming.

"Nope, completely serious," GoGo answers, flushing slightly.

"Wow, this is just… Insane!" Tadashi chuckles before adding quickly, "In a totally good way, of course!"

"Maybe we can all hang out or even go on double dates sometimes!" Honey suggests eagerly.

"I wouldn't mind that," Fred answers, knowing that he was probably grinning like an idiot but not able to bring himself to care.

"Sounds good to me," GoGo agrees with a small smile of her own.

"It's settled, then!" Tadashi happily squeezes Fred's hand in his own. "Maybe when we get back from this competition, we can try to set something up?"

"Awesome!" Honey Lemon beams before noticing some of the other robotics club members starting to show up in the parking lot. "Oh, we'd better let you guys go! But we'll see you in school on Monday?"

"Sounds perfect!" Fred agrees.

"Good luck at the competition!" Honey Lemon waves as she and GoGo head back towards the bike rack.

"Show 'em who's boss for me!" GoGo tells Fred with a double thumbs up.

"Will do!" Fred laughs, grinning at her.

And as the two couples go their separate ways, GoGo and Fred can't help but think that, as much as things had turned out completely different from how they'd ever expected them to go, they were insanely grateful that fate had taken things into its own hands and made sure that things worked out exactly how they were supposed to.


End file.
